As the college basketball season gets closer, expectations for teams become clearer and clearer. Wes Miller made it known what kind of roster the Cincinnati Bearcats have and what expectations come along with that.
Bearcats basketball held a press conference on July 16. Wes Miller, Baba Miller, Day Day Thomas, and Kerr Kriisa shared some thoughts on the upcoming basketball season.
"We're gonna have a great year, so let's go compete our butts off in that gym every day, let's hold ourselves to the highest standard," said Miller. "That's the challenge when you have 10-12 guys who are good enough to play impactful minutes."
"Summer is a crucial time for college basketball... developing the team with new faces that's been the main focus for us, getting these guys assimilated, getting our team together," said Miller.
The Bearcats' offseason from last year to this year couldn't look more different. Last season the Bearcats returned the vast majority of their roster, while this year they only returned 4 players from last years team.
The Bearcats built a Big 12-contending roster through the Transfer Portal this season which has been an adjustment for the staff.
"College basketball has changed, it's changed in significant, significant ways through the last 3 or 4 years. One of the things that's changed is the spring, the period of the season ends."
Miller goes on to say that once the season is concluded, it's about figuring out how win that period of time. He noted that the staff did an excellent job of evaluating and bringing in talent that will help the Bearcats get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019.
The Bearcats continue to climb on preseason ranking lists, the most recent being Jon Rothstein's ranking, in which he ranked the Bearcats as the No. 40 college basketball team in the country.
His projected starting five for Cincinnat is:
G Jizzle James
G Day Day Thomas
F Jalen Celestine
F Baba Miller
C Moustapha Thiam
He also noted Shon Abaev, Senciere Harris, Kerr Kriisa, Jalen Haynes and Keyshaun Tillery as key bench contributors.
Being ranked at No. 40, the Bearcats come in at the No. 7 team in the Big 12, a huge improvement from their No. 12 finish last season. Houston, BYU, Texas Tech, Arizona, Iowa State, and Kansas are the teams ranked ahead of them coming into next season.
The Bearcats' expectations at a minimum are to make to NCAA tournament. If this doesn't happen it's probably safe to say that Wes Miller's coaching job at Cincinnati could be in jeopardy, if it already isn't.